LRT director warns government contract would turn public broadcaster into a political tool

A proposed contract between Lithuania’s public broadcaster LRT and the government would reduce the media organisation to a “puppet tool” of political control, its director-general Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė warned on Thursday, according to the BNS news agency.

Under the plan, LRT would operate under a public service contract renewed every five years, supposedly guaranteeing stable funding and editorial independence. But Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė argued the agreement would instead concentrate power in the government’s hands, forcing LRT to negotiate its mission and budget with each new administration.

“Every time the government changes, the contract and LRT’s mandate could be revised, meaning our mission would ultimately depend on the ruling majority,” she said. “What negotiating leverage would LRT’s leadership have, coming with an outstretched hand to politicians?”

The director-general claimed the proposal—backed by a working group including the Internet News Publishers Association (IŽA), whose members are Lithuania’s largest news portals—would eliminate LRT’s current funding model and undermine constitutional safeguards. The Constitutional Court would lose its ability to review restrictions on LRT’s independence, she added, since the contract would fall outside its jurisdiction.

Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė also warned that a five-year agreement would prevent LRT from adapting to rapid changes in media, digital society, or geopolitical shifts. “Even in a perfect world where politicians sincerely cared about LRT’s public role, a fixed contract would lead to stagnation,” she said.

The proposed model mirrors suggestions from IŽA, which has long sought to limit LRT to “exclusive content” and strengthen its own members’ competitive position. “For years, IŽA has aimed to bolster its dominance, and this working group has become its strategic opportunity,” Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė stated.

She stressed that while similar contracts exist in other European countries, they only function when strictly limited to prevent government overreach. Without such constraints, she argued, the agreement would violate European media freedom standards—from the Media Freedom Act to the Amsterdam Protocol—and erode LRT’s constitutional protections.